The Decent Homes Standard is a technical standard introduced by the Government in 2000
It sets out the minimum standards that homes provided by social housing providers like Transform should achieve. As part of the Standard, we must comply with the Housing Health and Safety Rating system and homes must not have any serious hazards.
We assess all homes against the Decent Homes Standard to ensure they are considered safe and decent against the Standard’s four main criteria.
The criteria
1. Homes must meet the current legal minimum standard for housing
There are 29 hazards which homes are assessed against, and these are divided into four groups of hazards:
- Physiological (relating to the physical health of people living in the homes) – these include heating and moisture conditions and non-microbial pollutants
- Psychological (relating to the mental health of people living in the homes) – these include space, security, light and noise
- Protection against infection – these include hygiene, sanitation and water supply
- Protection against accidents – these include falls, electric shock, burns and scalds and building-related collision
2. Homes must be in a reasonable state of repair
To be in a reasonable state of repair homes must not have:
- one or more key building components that are old and because of their condition, need replacing or major repair; or
- two or more ‘other’ (i.e. not ‘key’) building components that are old and, because of their condition, need replacing or major repair.
The Standard also sets out details of how long these components can be in use (i.e. their lifetimes).
Key building components
• external walls
• roof structure and covering
• windows/doors
• chimneys
• central heating boilers
• gas fires
• storage heaters
• plumbing
• electrics.
Lifts are not usually considered to be key building components unless they have a direct impact on the structure of a building. If this was the case, we would treat them as key building components.
Any other components not detailed here are considered to be ‘other’ building components rather than ‘key’ building components.
3. Homes must have reasonably modern facilities and services meaning that at least four of the following requirements must be met:
- a reasonably modern kitchen (20 years old or less)
- a kitchen with adequate space and layout
- a reasonably modern bathroom (30 years old or less)
- an appropriately located bathroom and WC
- adequate insulation against external noise (where external noise is a problem) and
- adequate size and layout of common areas for blocks of flats.
4. Homes must be warm and weatherproof. They should have effective insulation and efficient heating (and no unresolved damp, mould or condensation issues)
How does Transform deliver, monitor and report the requirements of the Decent Homes Standard?
We monitor the decency of our homes in accordance with the requirements of the Standard (as above) and, each year, we report how we have met these to the Regulator of Social Housing.
All Transform occupied homes currently meet the Decent Homes Standard. There were 16 unoccupied units (two properties) which did not meet the Standard but both of these were sold in 2024. Funds from the sales will be used to modernise existing homes or replace them with more modern homes.
Our Repairs team carry out ongoing repairs to ensure homes remain in good condition.
We carry out regular inspections and servicing of items such as boilers, fixed electrical installations, emergency lighting and smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms. Further details about this are set out in our Health and Safety pages.
Our planned investment programme replaces items covered in The Decent Home Standard criteria 2, 3 and 4, which includes kitchens and bathrooms, boilers, electrical systems, doors, windows and roofing.
In addition, we have started to plan and implement actions needed to ensure all our properties achieve the Government’s minimum required standard Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of ‘C’, by 2030. There will be more about this programme and our ‘Road to Net Zero’ later in 2024.
Ahead of the General Election in 2024, the Government was reviewing the Decent Homes Standard. We understand there is likely to be a revision to the requirements for all social housing following this review but there isn’t an agreed timeline for this as yet.